A Desire Worth Dying for…Liberty for All
As I am writing this, I am on a ferry on my way back to England after visiting France. It is July 3rd, 2023. In France, I, along with a couple dozen of my students, experienced some of the beaches of D-Day and the US Cemetery in Normandy. On the way over to France, I watched the opening scenes of Saving Private Ryan in order to have a better understanding of what we were about to see. On the way back now, we finished watching the movie. Here are a few key scenes from the movie.
As the squadron of men head out into the countryside of France to look for Private Ryan, the question is asked, “Why are we risking our lives for the life of one man?” This is a completely fair question for a man to ask. The men talk about it, and it is all about following orders and getting back to one’s family by way of following orders. The life of an individual man is not worth the life of all of theirs.
Later on, the captain and the sergeant are getting ready to go to sleep in a church after they had just lost one of their men in a firefight. The captain gives his justification on how he can sleep at night after losing a man. He sees it as every life that he loses saves 10-20 other lives. It is a sums game, if he loses so many men, he will save that many more. This is how he has to think about it in order to justify it to himself. He then makes a side comment about Private Ryan saying that he had better go on to cure cancer or something. Private Ryan has to do something in order to earn the sacrifices of his men.
At the end of the movie, the captain is sitting there dying as Private Ryan is trying to help him and the captain says the same thing to him twice, “Earn it.” Go and earn this life that my squadron gave to you.
Finally, the closing scene is Private Ryan as an old man, visiting the grave of the captain. He turns to his wife and asks her if he has been a good man and if he had lived a good life. His children and grandchildren can be seen behind him. She tells him that he was a good man. At the end of his life, he is asking if he did enough to earn the life that he was given by the 2nd Ranger Company.
As tomorrow is the 4th of July, and we celebrate the freedom and founding of our great country. I too would want to ask if we are earning the life that we have been given. Men, throughout the short history of our country, have bled and died for the type of life that we live here today. Touring through other countries, countries that have nothing wrong with them, I know that I am blessed to be an American. There is no another country in the world that I would rather be a part of. The life that I live in America is totally blessed.
As I think about the people that I know who live around me in America, I do have to ask myself and I would extend an invitation for you to ask yourself if you are earning the life that has been bought for you through the lives of our soldiers. Blood has been spilt for the liberty that we experience on the daily. What are you doing for this country in order to be worthy of the blood that was spilt for you? What value are you adding? You should seek for it to be proportional to your giftedness. I use the word liberty on purpose. Liberty is the idea of freedom under the law, particularly the law of God. This is the type of freedom that our founding fathers were fighting for: the freedom to live their lives the way that they saw fit following the law that is on their hearts from the God above.
This is not the only blood that has been shed for my freedom. Christ also died for my sins as well. I did nothing. Before I was born, God sent His Son to die for my sins. I did nothing to earn it. I believe in Him, and it is counted to me as righteousness. There are no works involved. This is where I can identify with Private Ryan at the end of his life, yet I know better. When it comes to the end of my life, I will know that I never did enough to earn the gift of Christ. I know that no matter what I do, I will still deserve death, yet Christ died for me. With these two things in mind, I have a peace with how I live my life. I live my life with the hope that at the end, Christ will be able to say to me, “Well done, good and faithful servant.” If I have earned that title, glory be to God. Yet I also know that if I don’t earn that title, God will still accept me as one of His own. I have faith in all of His promises. I do not approach death in fear or trembling but as one that is assured of what is to come. I live my life like Private Ryan, trying to do the best in can in the strength and power of God, yet I have assurance. I won’t have to turn and ask my wife (whom I am missing dearly on this trip) if I have lived a good life. I know what a good life is from scripture. I will do the best that I can with what God has given me, count on His blessing of my efforts, and leave the end up to Him.
So on this 4th of July where we celebrate the liberties that we have in this country. Think about how you can bless those around you and in this country with the liberties that you have been given. Think about how you can live your life to “earn” the sacrifice of all the soldiers that died for your earthly liberty and of the death of Christ on the cross for your heavenly life. Be assured in your calling and the blessings that you have. Know that you will never measure up to the sacrifice that has been given and move forward. Don’t be paralyzed by your failures like Upham the coward of the movie. Be a person of decisive action because you know the end.
Do it all for the glory of God because you can’t earn it.